CN1852116A - Charging method of remote verifying dialing user-service client end - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a billing method of a RADIUS client, which adds a statistical attribute of a session fee in the RADIUS protocol, and after a certain user is authenticated successfully, it includes: the RADIUS client bills the user, and after the session ends, The amount consumed by the user during this session is sent to the RADIUS server through the session fee statistics attribute; the RADIUS server updates the user's information according to the received amount consumed by the user during this session. The method of the invention can not only reduce the complexity of the service provider, but also ensure the confidentiality of the charging policies of each network operator.

Description

Billing method of remote authentication dial-up user service client

technical field

The invention relates to a management method for users in a remote authentication dial-in user service (RADIUS, Remote Authorization Dial In User Service) environment, in particular to a charging method for a RADIUS client (Client).

Background technique

RADIUS is a protocol for transmitting authentication, authorization and configuration information between a network access server (NAS, Network Access Server) and a RADIUS server that centrally stores authentication information. RADIUS works in the mode of client (Client)/server (Server), and realizes identity authentication, authentication and billing of remote telephone dial-up users. Among them, the RADIUS Server is used to centrally store the user's authentication information, such as the user name and password used by the user to access the Internet, etc., authenticate the user according to the authentication information stored by itself, and return the user's configuration information after the authentication is successful; The RADIUS client is mostly a NAS implemented by dial-up, and is mainly used to transmit user information to the server.

In a typical network at this stage, RADIUS Server and RADIUS Client belong to the same service provider (SP)/network operator, and each RADIUS Client connected to the same RADIUS Server has the same billing policy. Therefore, for the convenience of billing , place the information required for billing in the RADIUS Server, and the RADIUS Server completes the billing for each access user.

With the continuous development of the network, the topology of the network is also constantly changing. Currently, service providers and network operators have been separated from the same entity and become two separate entities. Figure 1 shows such a network topology, in which, RADIUS Server, such as a service provider, no longer has the control function of switching and transmission, but is used to store user information, and realize user authentication, authentication and billing; and RADIUS Client For example, the network operator is used to implement the switching and transmission functions, and interacts with the service provider through the RADIUS protocol to implement user authentication, authentication and billing. Here, the network operator may be a fixed network operator or a wireless network operator, etc. They can provide users with Internet access services, but each network operator has its own different billing Strategy. Taking basic Internet access as an example, the fee for user access to the network may include two aspects: a one-time connection fee charged when the user connects to the Internet, and an operation fee charged based on the user's Internet access time. Different network operators may have different charging policies for connection fees and operation fees. For example, for network operator 1, the connection fee is 5 yuan/time, and the operation fee is 0.05 yuan/minute; for network operator 2, the connection fee is 0 yuan/time, and the operation fee is 0.01 yuan/minute. Each network operator can also constantly change its own billing strategy according to the needs of competition.

Since different network operators have different charging strategies, and the charging function is implemented by the service provider as the RADIUS Server, each network operator needs to announce the details of its own charging strategy to the service provider , doing so is very detrimental to the confidentiality of the charging policies of each network operator. In addition, since the service provider needs to adopt different charging strategies for charging users who access through different network operators, this will directly lead to an increase in the complexity of the service provider's charging function. In addition, due to the needs of competition, each network operator may constantly adjust its own billing strategy, so it is also necessary to update the billing strategy of each network operator saved on the service provider while adjusting the billing strategy. It will increase the complexity of charging, and on the other hand, it may also cause a delay in the application of charging policies. The above problems are particularly obvious in a RADIUS environment with multiple network operators and multiple service providers.

Contents of the invention

In order to solve the above-mentioned technical problems, the present invention provides a charging method of RADIUS Client, which can reduce the complexity of RADIUS Server and ensure the confidentiality of charging strategies of each network operator.

The method that RADIUS Client of the present invention carries out billing to the user, increases session cost statistics attribute in RADIUS protocol, described method comprises after the user authentication success to request session:

a. During the session, the RADIUS Client charges the user according to its own charging policy during the message forwarding process of the session;

b. After the session ends, the RADIUS Client carries the amount consumed by the user during this session in the session cost statistics attribute and sends it to the RADIUS server;

c. The RADIUS server updates the user's information according to the received amount consumed by the user during the current session.

The user mentioned in the present invention is a prepaid user.

Add session balance attribute in RADIUS protocol;

The method further includes before performing step a: before the session starts, the RADIUS server carries the balance of the prepaid card used by the prepaid user in the session balance attribute, and sends it to the corresponding RADIUS Client;

The billing process described in step a includes:

a1. The RADIUS Client calculates the amount currently consumed by the prepaid user during this session in real time according to its own billing policy;

a2. RADIUS Client compares the consumption amount calculated in step a1 with the balance of the prepaid card received from the RADIUS server, and when the amount consumed by the prepaid user reaches the balance, disconnect the prepaid user from the Internet Connect, end the session; otherwise, return to step a1 until the prepaid user ends the session.

The session balance attribute described in the present invention is carried by the access acceptance message or the access challenge message sent by the RADIUS server to the RADIUS Client.

Step c is updated as follows: the RADIUS server uses the balance of the prepaid card recorded by the RADIUS server to subtract the amount received by the prepaid user during this session, and the difference is used as the new balance to replace the original saved balance .

The session charging statistics attribute of the present invention is carried by the charging request message sent to the RADIUS server by the RADIUS Client.

It can be seen from this that the method of the present invention increases the session balance attribute used to carry the balance information of the prepaid card used by the prepaid user in the RADIUS protocol, so that the RADIUSServer can use the prepaid card used by the prepaid user The balance of the account is sent to the corresponding RADIUS Client, and the RADIUS Client completes the billing of the prepaid user; and by adding the session fee statistics attribute in the RADIUS protocol, the RADIUS Client can send the amount consumed by the user in one session to the RADIUS Server To update the balance of the user, to realize the update of the balance of the prepaid user or the postpaid user. Like this, the method described in the present invention can reduce the complexity of RADIUS Server accounting function on the one hand, can also guarantee the secrecy of each network operator's accounting strategy on the other hand.

Description of drawings

Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of the network topology after the network operator and the service provider are separated into two entities;

Fig. 2 is the flowchart that RADIUS Client of the present invention carries out billing to user;

Fig. 3 is the flow chart that RADIUS Clint of the present invention charges the prepaid user.

Detailed ways

In order to solve the problems existing in the prior art and realize the billing of each network operator, such as RADIUSClient, the core idea of the present invention is to expand the existing RADIUS protocol to carry the session fee statistics of the user's consumption fee during a session (Acct-Session-Cost) attribute. In this way, after the session ends, the RADIUS Client can calculate the amount consumed by the user during this session, and send the amount consumed by the user to the RADIUS Server through the Acct-Session-Cost attribute to update the user record stored in itself .

For prepaid users, it is also necessary to add the session balance (Session-Balance) attribute used to carry the balance of the prepaid card used by the prepaid user in the attributes specified in the RADIUS protocol. Through the above-mentioned Session-Balance attribute, RADIUS Server such as business The provider can send the balance of the prepaid card used by the prepaid user to the RADIUS Client, and the RADIUS Client can implement fee-based billing for the user.

Like other attributes stipulated in the RADIUS protocol, the Session-Balance attribute and the Acct-Session-Cost attribute both include three parts: type (Type), length (Length) and attribute value (Value). The specific definitions of the Session-Balance attribute and the Acct-Session-Cost attribute are shown in Table 1, where the Type part is represented by 1 byte, which is used to identify the attribute as a Session-Balance attribute or Acct-Session-Cost attribute, The present invention has no specific limitation on this value, and can be defined as any reserved value stipulated by the RADIUS protocol; the Length part is also represented by 1 byte, which is used to indicate the total length of the Session-Balance attribute or attribute of the receiving end; the Value part is used for Holds the content of each property. For the Session-Balance attribute, the Value part is the balance of the prepaid card used by the prepaid user, represented by 4 bytes, that is, a 32-bit unsigned integer; for the Acct-Session-Cost, the Value part is The amount consumed by the user in one session, expressed in 4 bytes. It can be seen from this that the total length of the Session-Balance attribute and the Acct-Session-Cost attribute is 6 bytes. The Session-Balance attribute may be carried by an Access Accept (Access Accept) message or an Access Challenge (Access Challenge) message, and the Acct-Session-Cost attribute may be carried by an Accounting request (Accounting request) message. The Session-Balance attribute and the Acct-Session-Cost attribute may appear 0-1 times in the above message, that is to say, these two attributes are optional attributes of the message. attribute name type Length value carried message The number of occurrences Session Balance TBD ^* 6 The maximum fee a user is allowed to use in this session Access-Accept, Access-Challenge 0-1 Acct-Session-Cost TBD ^* 6 The amount the user spent in the session Accounting-request 0-1

Table 1

Note: TBD ^* indicates that the Type value of this attribute can be any reserved value stipulated by the RADIUS protocol, which needs to be determined in actual applications.

It can be seen that through the above-mentioned Session-Balance attribute, RADIUS Server can send the balance information of the prepaid card used by the prepaid user to the corresponding RADIUS Client; through the above-mentioned Acct-Session-Cost attribute, RADIUS Client can send the user The amount consumed in one session is sent to RADIUS Server.

Fig. 2 is the flow chart of the charging method of RADIUS Client described in the present invention. As shown in Figure 2, after a user is successfully authenticated, it mainly includes:

A. During the session, RADIUS Client charges the user;

The billing described in this step is: RADIUS Client calculates the amount consumed by the user during this session according to its own billing strategy;

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the RADIUS Client can perform real-time billing according to the time when the prepaid user accesses the network. Yuan/minute, and the accumulative time for the user to access the network is 100 minutes, then the user’s consumption amount for this session is 0+0.01×100=1 (yuan);

B. After the session ends, the RADIUS Client carries the amount consumed by the user during this session in the Acct-Session-Cost attribute and sends it to the RADIUS Server;

In this step, the Acct-Session-Cost attribute can be carried by the Accounting-Request message sent to the RADIUS Server by the RADIUS Client;

Since the Acct-Session-Cost attribute is sent after the session between the prepaid user and the Internet ends, the session state (Acct-Session-Type) carried in the Accounting-Request message carrying the Acct-Session-Cost attribute The attribute value should be the end (Stop);

C. The RADIUS Server updates the user's information according to the received amount consumed by the user during this session.

Fig. 3 has shown the method flow that RADIUS Client of the present invention carries out billing to prepaid user, as shown in Fig. 3, this method mainly comprises after a certain prepaid user authentication is successful:

a. Before the session starts, the RADIUS Server sends the balance of the prepaid card used by the prepaid user to the corresponding RADIUS Client through the Session-Balance attribute;

In this step, the Session-Balance attribute can be carried by an Access-Accept message or an Access-Challenge message sent by the RADIUS Server to the RADIUS Client;

b. During the session, the RADIUS Client charges the prepaid user in real time according to the balance;

Specifically, when the RADIUS Client charges the prepaid user in real time, the RADIUS Client calculates the amount consumed by the prepaid user during this session according to the RADIUS Client's own charging policy. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the RADIUS Client can perform real-time billing according to the time when the prepaid user accesses the network. Yuan/minute, the network operator will increase the consumption amount of the prepaid user in this session by 0.01 yuan for each additional minute of the prepaid user’s access to the network, and then compare the increased consumption amount with the RADIUS Server compares the balance information received by the RADIUS Server, and when the amount consumed by the prepaid user reaches the balance, the RADIUS Client will disconnect the prepaid user from the Internet, end this session, and prompt the user that the balance is insufficient; otherwise , continue to charge according to its own charging strategy until the prepaid user leaves the Internet and ends the session;

c. After the current session ends, the RADIUS Client sends the amount consumed by the prepaid user during this session to the RADIUS Server through the Acct-Session-Cost attribute;

In this step, the Acct-Session-Cost attribute can be carried by the Accounting-Request message sent to the RADIUS Server by the RADIUS Client, and the Acct-Session-Type attribute value in the message should be Stop;

d. The RADIUS Server updates the balance information in the prepaid card record according to the received amount consumed by the prepaid user during this session.

In this step, the update is: the RADIUS Server uses the balance of the prepaid card recorded by itself to subtract the amount received by the prepaid user during this session, and uses the difference as the new balance Replace the original saved balance.

The method described in the present invention will be described in detail below through specific examples.

After successfully authenticating a prepaid user, the service provider as RADIUS Server will record the balance of the prepaid card used by the prepaid user in its own user records, such as 10 (yuan), through Access-Accept or Access- The Session-Balance attribute carried in the Challenge message is sent to the corresponding network operator as the RADIUS Client.

During the session, the network operator calculates the consumption amount of the prepaid user in this session in real time according to its own charging policy. For example, if the network operator's billing policy is 0 yuan/time for connection and 0.01 yuan/minute for operation, then the network operator will calculate the amount consumed by the prepaid user once per minute according to the billing policy. When a prepaid user accesses the Internet for 100 minutes, the calculated consumption amount is 0+0.01×100=1 (yuan), when the prepaid user accesses the Internet for 1000 minutes, the calculated consumption amount is 0+0.01×1000=10 (Yuan).

When the network operator detects that the amount consumed by the prepaid user during this session reaches the balance of 10 (yuan) of the prepaid card used by the prepaid user, the network operator will actively disconnect the prepaid user Connect with the Internet, end this session, and prompt the user that the balance of the prepaid card used is insufficient, and then pass the amount of 10 (yuan) consumed by the prepaid user in this session through the Acct-Session carried in the Accounting-Request message -Cost attribute is sent to the corresponding service provider.

If the prepaid user spends less than the balance of the prepaid card when leaving the Internet and ending the current session, for example, when only 1 yuan is consumed, the network operator will use the prepaid user's current session consumption amount of 1 ( element) to the corresponding service provider through the Acct-Session-Cost attribute in the Accounting-Request message.

After the service provider receives the amount consumed by the prepaid user during this session, such as 10 yuan or 1 yuan, the service provider records the amount used by the prepaid user according to the amount consumed by the prepaid user. The balance of the prepaid card is updated to 10-10=0 (yuan) or 10-1=9 (yuan).

It can be seen from the above method that the network operator as RADIUS Client completes the billing of each prepaid user, on the one hand, it can reduce the complexity of the service provider as RADIUS Server, on the other hand, it can also ensure that each network operator Confidentiality of Fee Policy.

Claims (6)

1, a kind of remote authentication dial-in user service radius client is characterized in that the method that the user charges, and increases session expense statistical attribute in radius protocol, and described method comprises after the authentification of user success to queued session:

A, in conversation procedure, radius client charges to this user according to oneself charging policy in carrying out the message repeating process of described session;

B, behind conversation end, radius client is consumed this user in this conversation procedure the amount of money is carried in the described session expense statistical attribute, sends to radius server;

The amount of money that c, radius server are consumed in this conversation procedure according to this user who receives upgrades this user's information.

2, the method for claim 1 is characterized in that, described user is the prepaid user.

3, method as claimed in claim 2 is characterized in that, increases session remaining sum attribute in radius protocol;

Described method further comprised before execution in step a: before session began, radius server was carried on the remaining sum of prepaid card that this prepaid user uses in the described session remaining sum attribute, sends to corresponding radius client;

The described charging process of step a comprises:

A1, radius client calculate this prepaid user current amount of money of having consumed in this conversation procedure in real time according to the charging policy of self;

A2, radius client compare the remaining sum of step a1 the consumption amount of money that calculates and the prepaid card that receives from radius server, when the amount of money of having consumed as this prepaid user reaches described remaining sum, disconnect being connected of this prepaid user and internet, finish this session; Otherwise, return step a1, finish this session until this prepaid user.

4, method as claimed in claim 3 is characterized in that, described session remaining sum attribute is accepted message or inserted the challenge message carrying by the access that radius server sends to radius client.

5, method as claimed in claim 3, it is characterized in that, step c is described to be updated to: the amount of money that the remaining sum of the prepaid card of radius server use self record and this prepaid user of reception consume in this conversation procedure subtracts each other, and will obtain difference and substitute original remaining sum of preserving as new remaining sum.

6, the method for claim 1 is characterized in that, described session charging statistical attribute is sent to the charging request message carrying of radius server by radius client.